The World's Most Reputable Companies

We live in a world where word of mouth is the No. 1 driver of sales and competitive advantage—and because there’s a strong correlation between a company’s reputation and consumers’ willingness to recommend it, businesses need to focus on building those strong bonds with stakeholders. Companies should of course strive to earn the trust and esteem of consumers in its native land, but given that a multinational gets a majority of its revenue from international markets, it really needs to be liked everywhere else, too.

Building a top-notch reputation that spans the world isn't easy. However, at least 100 well-regarded companies have successfully expanded their brands into the international marketplace by integrating reputation management into the way they do business.

Reputation Institute, a global private consulting firm based in New York, recently ranked 100 businesses that have successfully established strong international names for themselves. The firm invited about 47,000 consumers across 15 markets to participate in a study of those 100 most reputable companies, all multinational businesses with a global presence.

Each company earned a "Global RepTrak Pulse" score of zero to 100, representing an average measure of people's feelings for it. The scores were statistically derived from calculations of four emotional indicators: trust, esteem, admiration and good feeling.

Reputation Institute also analyzed what it calls the seven dimensions of corporate reputation. That’s where it found that perceptions of the enterprise (workplace, governance, citizenship, financial performance and leadership) trumped product perceptions (products and services plus innovation) in driving behaviors.

“In today’s reputation economy, what you stand for matters more than what you produce and sell,” says Kasper Ulf Nielsen, Reputation Institute's executive partner. “People’s willingness to buy, recommend, work for, and invest in a company is driven 60% by their perceptions of the company and only 40% by their perceptions of their products.”

The study shows that in order to win support and recommendations, a company needs to tell its story in a way that connects with stakeholders on a global level. “This is a challenge that even the best companies struggle with,” Nielsen says.

Building a strong reputation takes time. “You need to live up to your promises and be relevant in the local and global context,” he adds. “You need to be seen as a company who genuinely cares about stakeholders. The best companies are the ones who invest in local and global activities; the ones who are doing more than just selling their products. The companies who are seen as the reputation champions produce locally, employ local people, and engage in solving local issues in all markets.”

One company that has been able to do this exceptionally well: BMW. The German automaker is now in the top 10 for all seven dimensions on a global level, and in the top 10 in 10 of the 15 markets, earning the title of world's most reputable company for 2012.